Advice on Stirling and Euros....

My wife is due to start a one year placement in Italy starting in September. We will all be moving there in August.

Her salary is being paid to her in two lump sums by a US institution. The first lot in July the second lot in early 2010.

I'd like some advice as to where this money should go when she is paid. If we get it paid into an existing UK account then it will be converted from USD to stirling. When we need to use it in Italy we will then need to convert it to Euros. This conversion process will, no doubt, cost.

Also, it may be that we get a better return by having it converted from USD straight to Euros and keeping it in a Euro account. The problem with this is that we have to remotely open an Italian account before we get there. Which may not be that easy....

We can't predict what exchange rates will be doing in the upcoming year either.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

TIA, Dan

Reply to
danw
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How about opening a US$ account in the UK now and having it paid into that? You can keep the money in US$ until you get to Italy and decide later how much of it you want to withdraw in Euros for your expenses there.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Blunt

Open Citibank Pound, Euro and Dollar current accounts in the UK (free). Since Citi is a US bank, you may have less trouble getting the money paid into the USD account. Then you can move money between them as you like with normal internet/telephone banking. The Euro account gives you a Visa debit card with no fees (but cash withdrawals from non-Citi machines cost). The interest you get is rubbish, though (nothing in the current accounts, peanuts in their deposit accounts).

The load on a Citi exchange is about 3% - better than a bureau de change, but if you're talking >10K you can probably do better going via a broker.

Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

Theo Markettos wrote: > The load on a Citi exchange is about 3% - better than a bureau de change,

Thank Theo. Yes the amount will be >10k. Are you saying I should look to convert it elsewhere?

This is all getting very complex for my little brain.

Thanks, Dan

Reply to
danw

Have a read of:

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for all the options... Theo

Reply to
Theo Markettos

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